AsvsausWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: As is a name, aus is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“As” is a name and “aus” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#135
“As” frequency rank
#18,401
“aus” frequency rank
18536
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature As aus
Definition Commune de la province de Limbourg de la région flamande de Belgique. De (désigne la provenance).

Where the eye mixes As and aus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

2 ch
As
3 ch
aus

Look-alike desk: As vs aus

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: As is \as\ while aus is \aʊ̯s\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18536, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

As is recorded at frequency rank #135, classified as aname, pronounced \as\. aus is at rank #18,401, tagged as aprep, pronounced \aʊ̯s\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 18536, this pair ranks #377,812 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of As vs aus

Shared letters: as. Private to "As": -. Private to "aus": u.

"As" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "aus" · 3 letters · shape VVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "As" for "aus" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "As" is a name and "aus" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "As" or "aus"?
"As" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #135 in our French list, against #18,401 for "aus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "As" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #377,812 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "As" and "aus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aus vs aves". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #377,812 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list